EMC382 OES ACS FIELD UNITS Pt1 
To:   Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To:   Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By:   Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the
      California Governor's Office of Emergency Services

EMC382 OES ACS FIELD UNITS Pt1       Release  2/24/03 

State OES, California, has developed Auxiliary Communications
Service (ACS) Field Teams to assist in the deployment of OES
assets. These include itıs trailer-mounted transportable earth
stations and Mobile Communications Units (Comm Vans).

The genesis for the field teams occurred in the early l990's when
a volunteer obtained and donated a used TV crew truck to State
OES. He and several other volunteers prepared it for microwave
and telephone. One memorable use of that Comm Van was the Oakland
Fire Storm which burned out the phone lines. The field team put
the Comm Van on the hills, made a line-of-sight microwave link to
the Oakland-Bay Bridge Toll Plaza. There the received microwave
signal was connected to the telephone system. That provided access
to telephone lines at the Command Post for the Incident Commander.

That team became known as RF Team #1, and its members included
Richard Epting, Lance Rettick, Steve Cembura and Jeff Ruhl.

The success of the RF Team, as indicated by the Oakland Fire
Storm usage, along with numerous other situations, persuaded OES
to acquire and equip three new units largely modeled after that
first donated unit. In the mid-to-late 1990's these joined that
original unit, along with another specialty unit created by that
original field team.

These five units are collectively identified as three ICS Type I
Communications Units and two Specialty Units, one for Microwave
and the other as a Repeater Unit. More about them in the other
bulletins.

The earth stations program was created in the mid '90's when
the state funded the Operational Area Satellite Information
System (OASIS) program. That placed a fixed earth station at
each of the 58 counties and other key sites. In the process OES 
acquired four trailer-mounted earth stations as part of its 
field-deployable emergency communications resources. 

These satellite trailers have been of great value to remote fire
Incident Command Centers in the rugged foothills and mountains of
the state, as well as myriad other applications and events. The
telephones that result provide the most user-friendly form of
communications to fire, law and similar agencies.

Today, State OES ACS personnel provide several field teams which
support these OES assets, yet there is need for others willing
to undertake the requisite training. 

A recent example was the Williams Fire in Southern California
where an OASIS unit was deployed, along with a Communications
Van. Some of the photo's of that event can be viewed at the
following URL 
http://home.earthlink.net/~k6ccc/Photo/WilliamsFire.html
 
Series continues in the next bulletin.
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EOM